By and For Those With Private Disability Claims

LinkOut From LinkedIn

With the new Internet surveillance now made possible by our modern information technology, insurance companies have more information at their fingertips to discredit disability claims. Of late, denial letters are going out from Unum (and I suspect other insurers) with mentions of suspected unreported earnings and business activity due to pages on LinkedIn.

While it may seem innocent enough to keep both feet in the business door, it isn’t wise for claimants to appear as though they are soliciting business while receiving disability benefits. LinkedIn is particularly useful in keeping one’s name “out there” as a business contact. Again, it may seem reasonable and legitimate to want to keep up client lists etc., but imagine how a company such as Unum can misrepresent information about you — and it does!

As I’ve mentioned many times in my posts, most information obtained on the Internet by insurers is either old or inaccurate. Unum’s techies hunt down the information and report it back to claims management whether it is actually true or not. One of the attorneys I work for on a regular basis agreed with me that he is also seeing denial letters from Unum with mentions of LinkedIn alleging unreported earnings.

Even though information obtained isn’t accurate, Unum’s “red flags” open up the door to months of harassment and investigation for nothing. Unum generally requests 10 years of tax returns and begins surveillance even to the point of contacting prior business associates to find out whether or not claimants are in fact working.

Insurers are allowed to investigate claims, but when they misrepresent information they know to be questionable, what results is at best a series of unfair accusations intended to pad disability files with suspicion. In other words, use of Internet information not proven to be accurate is a deliberate way of discrediting insureds and any other information that is subsequently submitted in support of claims.

Insureds and claimants are recommended not to post anything on LinkedIn, and if they have an open account, delete it. I realize it is very hard sometimes to completely let go of a career and contacts it’s taken years to build. Yet, disability insurers are using Internet Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and many other programs to “hunt down” information that can be used to not pay legitimate claims. Even if Unum’s allegations aren’t true, the company will hang claims out in the ozone for months, sometimes without pay, until it’s cleared up.